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Year 9 Drama Plans

This book covers: naturalistic characterisation -focusing on movement as affected by status, age, profession and mood; on building a character's details to give depth and on the need for justification for all a character's behaviour.

Some 'real' characters in 'real' situations, which explore the kind of social situations they might encounter are explored, with focus both on furthering improvisation skills - spontaneous and polished - as well as demanding a response and understanding of such issues as peer pressure, parental pressure and other relevant subjects. Role swapping and character justification are used to encourage understanding of all sides of problem situations. A devised project on the subject of bullying is worked through, both to explore the issue and to further the devising skills begun in Year 8.

Confidence in a variety of social situations is concentrated on, from using a telephone competently to judging the right language to use when meeting and greeting a variety of different people of all ages and social positions.

There is more work on handling crowd scenes and on directing an audience's focus of attention.

Finally, the year's work ends with an extended scriptwork project, culminating in performance.

All the skills built up in detail in the previous two books are used: observation, teamwork, tolerance, evaluative and reviewing skills; as well as more technical acting and performance skills, such as mime, physical and narrative theatre.

Emphasis throughout all three books is on good practice for both teacher and students. At all times a climate of mutual listening and tolerance Is encouraged, so that the potential frightening freedom [for the teacher - and for the shyer children] of the drama lesson happens within the elastic sides of a discipline built up by the acceptance of certain basic 'rules' which are always insisted upon.

For those who have not got either of the previous books. Drama Plans Year 7 and Drama Plans Year 8,1 will repeat the few rules outlined there on structuring your drama lesson. These rules a class will quickly become used to and it will mean that they treat the structure you impose with as much respect as any formal lesson sat behind desks.

Introduction

Much of the below is also part of the introduction to Year 7 Drama Plans. I have reproduced it because some people may not have the first book.

I am aware that many people teaching class drama at this level are not specialists; I have therefore taken care to explain everything - games, exercises, terminology - at the risk of irritating those specialists who are also delivering these lessons. I felt it was better to over- explain and to make clear the justification for each exercise than to leave anyone bewildered. For instance, there are sometimes games used at the beginning of lessons - though far less often than in Year 7 - as I find that starting with a whole group activity is a way of drawing the group together and beginning in a disciplined way. Games, where used, are therefore a useful part of the structure of the whole lesson, quite apart from the individual skills - concentration, alertness, speed of response, group co-operation, etc. - also addressed by participation in them.

For the non-specialist it is important to recognise that drama teachers are rather unusual people who must be prepared to join in as well as to demonstrate and who therefore need to dress appropriately, as must the children. School skirts, high-heeled shoes or hard, heavy footwear restrict movement and inhibit creativity. Just as for P.E., the student attending a drama lesson needs to feel that he is attending something with special requirements, out of the conventional restrictions of the classroom. I suggest that you make a firm ruling from the beginning that they wear trousers or tracksuit bottoms and soft shoes, plimsolls or bare feet. If you, as the teacher, need to deliver other more formal lessons, make sure that you, like them, have some tracksuit trousers to change into and are prepared to take off your own shoes.

Students new to the idea of drama are going to absorb a great deal from your manner at the beginning. That is why clothing is so important, as is a relaxed but disciplined atmosphere. They must know that no nonsense is tolerated at the same time as feeling that they can trust you and everyone in the group. If this sounds a frightening balance to the non- drama specialist, a lot will be solved by making sure there is plenty to do: the exercises must not flag but must move quickly on from one to the other. The lessons in this book will help you here.

In addition, here are a few more ideas as to how to structure your drama lesson. They will very quickly become used to your way of working and will treat the structure with as much respect as a formal lesson sat behind desks.

1. The children change into appropriate clothing for drama, at the very least tracksuit bottoms or similar and soft-soled flat shoes or bare feet. This is practical and Invites both comfort in moving and lack of embarrassment, particularly for the girls.
2. After changing, they move automatically into a seated circle in the centre of the room. It is better if the circle is seated on the floor, not chairs. Some exercises specify chairs but on the whole, if I have said 'seated', I mean on the floor.
3. As soon as the teacher joins them in the circle, they fall silent. This Is the signal that the lesson is about to begin.
4. When you indicate that an exercise has finished, they sit where they are on the floor, fall silent and listen to the instructions for the next exercise. They should never move - e.g. to get into pairs or groups - until you have indicated that all instructions have been given.
5. Lose no opportunity of promoting the idea of tolerance and of working together to build a mutually supportive group. This might mean that you occasionally choose groups and pairings yourself, so that they do not get fixed with the same partners and friendship groups. If this is done often it will be accepted as part of the 'drama thing' and will not elicit groans!
6. Most of the last exercises of the lesson are 'performance' ones, where the groups present their work to the rest of the class. Establish from the start where performances happen, i.e. on the stage or on the floor, and where the group should sit in relation to them. Some of the exercises in this book require a stage, or at least a performance area which is clearly defined, others might merely need an audience sitting in a horse-shoe shape leaving the open end free for performance; both audience requirements should be shown them and the signal for audience positions should also be a signal for silence and concentrated attention.
7. Retain this shape for the ending session, which should always be an evaluative discussion of what has been learned. The teacher then moves into the open end of the horseshoe or onto the performance area to lead the discussion.
8. This book often demands some preparation or written evaluative work. This may have been started in previous years but should be insisted on in this year, as a preparation for the type of work required for G.C.S.E. Insist that description of the task performed is kept to the minimum so that evaluative comment becomes the focus of each student's attention - both of their own preparation and performance and that of others in the class.

The discussion at the end of the lesson should ask the right questions for them to start thinking in an evaluative way. What worked and what did not? Why do they think this was so? What improvements could have been made? What skills were being used? How successfully? And so on. Note that I use the word he and him throughout this book. as I do in all my books, taking as excuse the word 'actor' which is used for either sex. No offence is meant and of course all exercises can be adapted to either sex.

Sample Pages from Year 9 Drama Plan:

This is the second lesson of two which deals with some everyday 'practical' situations. Once again, the focus should be on appropriate tone and language as well as strategies for dealing with these things. The outcome should be increased awareness in the students and, hopefully, increased confidence in knowing how to deal with awkward moments.

1. Start with a quick round of greetings as a warm-up. The students mill around the room not ail going in the same direction. Teacher instructs them to greet everyone they see with, one at a time: Hello; Hi; Yo, dude [or similar up-to-the-minute phrase]; a handshake; a handslap; How are you?; air-kissing; a handshake using both hands; a short grip on the shoulder; a slap on the back; a hug.
When completed, briefly sit them down to discuss who might use these greetings and when they might be appropriate. Also discuss briefly what would not be appropriate.

2. Start with the students standing in two equal lines at opposite ends of the room, facing each other. As the person opposite them comes towards them they are to greet him in the following ways, according to the teacher's instructions. Each meeting should lead into a brief conversation:

• As the best friend you haven't seen since yesterday
• As a stranger you meet in the street - perhaps you have lost your way
• As a relative you are very fond of
• As a relative who you don't know well
• As an adult stranger you have been asked to show around the school
• As a stranger of your own age you have been asked to show around the school
• As someone your own age who you don't like very much but who you must remain on good terms with
• As a prospective employer you are meeting for the first time
• As the headmaster to whom you have been sent to fetch something for your teacher

Obviously,you will have to allocate roles, e.g. one side to be the headmaster one the pupil, but do alternate these, so the same side is not always the adult, where an adult is indicated.

Use the strategy of asking them to freeze at times, to allow focus on a particular pair. Or ask one or two to demonstrate their conversations before moving onto the next one. Make sure they begin to see what is appropriate and what not, including comments on the 'headmasters', for instance, choice of language. Can they accurately use adult-style conversation?

3. Allow them a little fun now by calling for a group improvisation in groups of three, four or, maximum, five. The subject matter of the improvisation is up to them but it must contain the following:

• a telephone conversation, a meeting with someone and an awkward situation.

Make clear that you expect the following from them:

• A shape to the piece - beginning, development, ending; characters that are realistically portrayed [remind them to think of some details about each character]; and appropriate language from all characters throughout

In the final discussion/evaluation inform them that you expect far more awareness of appropriate language and behaviour from all characters in improvisation from now on. This will be just another area to watch out for and will enhance the believability of their work. This, of course, also reminds the class that though the strategies explored In the last two lessons are ones that they might have to employ in their own lives, they are also in the process of exploring a 'performance' subject. The two things are not mutually exclusive.

Lesson Sixteen and Lesson Seventeen

needed: paper and pen for each group - or their drama notebooks if you have them

The session on crowds leads us nicely into some work on 'choosing the right style' for an improvisation or a devised piece. Students often find this a very hard choice and, unless constantly reminded of other options, will stick to naturalism because that is what they are familiar with In the TV soap drama most of them watch If the class have previously used the Year 8 book, the styles of narrative theatre and physical theatre are explored there; remind them of this work.
First of all, I propose working through an idea all together, to point out the many different approaches that could be made for a simple, very 'typical', story- line. So as to explore this thoroughly and not make them feel rushed I suggest taking two periods over the work.

A young person is being bullied at school. The bullying occurs in and out of the school premises and gets so bad that he [or she] is near the end of his tether.
He tries to turn to his family but Dad tells him to stand up for himself and Mum is sympathetic but proposes making a complaint at the school. This worries the victim, who fears worse torment if the bullies get into trouble. He tells Mum he can cope after all.
The ending is left unresolved: does he turn to a teacher? Does he find the courage to stand up for himself? Does he start not going to school, making for himself a whole new set of problems? There are many possible endings.

1. In groups of around six or seven, ask each group to do the following:

• 1 Decide on an ending
• 2 Allocate the characters ...
• 3 Decide on the number and order of scenes with roughly what happens in each.

The results of this should be written down by each group.

2. Coming back into the circle, each group should run through the decisions they have made so far
Then ask them what sort of dramatic impact they would like the story to have:

• Would they like people to be thoroughly involved with the characters? sympathise with the victim? feel an understanding of - if not necessarily sympathy with -other points of view within the piece, eg. teacher, parents, the bullies?
• Would they like the audience to see the case as typical, something that happens to more than one individual? A problem that must be tackled universally?
• Would they like the audience to feel shocked? angry?

It must be understood that choosing one set of options does not exclude the others. For instance a group might decide that they want an audience to feel thoroughly involved with this individual's story but also to understand that the problem is a larger one which needs to be tackled They may want to shock the audience and horrify them in general, as well as showing the victim and his family as real people. STYLES CAN BE MIXED. In fact, the mixture of styles will often lead to more interestingly shaped devised work.

3. Ask them in their groups again to work on just a bullying scene. They should try it in a number of different ways:

• a. naturalistically: the victim is 'real' and the kind of language used by all is recognisably possible in the situation.
• b. exaggerate features of the previous scene with a view to shocking or horrifying the audience as much as possible. This could be done in a number of ways but here are three good examples:
  
  i.the style remains realistic and the characters believable but the things they say are truly terrible and actually, if analysed, not very likely in reality - threatening various tortures, for instance, etc. The bullying is thus far more terrible than it would be if administered by your average school 'topdog' and his cronies. The things they come up with make one wince and sympathy for the victim is increased
  
  ii.the bullies begin the scene in a realistic style but then turn on the audience and seek to intimidate them by hurling taunts, moving amongst them and so on -so the audience is given a taste of being the victim
  
  iii.the nastiness of the bullies is exaggerated and pointed out by making the bullies move together like in our crowd exercise, physicalising the contortions of their bodies and translating the horror of what they are saying into animal-like sounds, howls, shrieks etc. me victim, too, could move from speech to sound reactions - groans, cries and so on.
• c. start the scene naturalistically but freeze it at a certain point and use a narrator to broaden the picture. Point out 'typical' features of bullying by fast-forwarding, freeze-framing, reversing bits of action so that the narrator can 'stop' things and point out features he wants the audience to notice. The effect of this style will be to give it more universality and to allow the audience to think and make judgements about what they are seeing.

Follow up by watching and analysing the results of the experiment: each group perhaps to show the scene in two or three different ways.

When all have been watched, ask the class to analyse and evaluate the results thoroughly. Discourage judgements of one style being better than another. Point out that when devising, experimenting amongst a number of different approaches is best before deciding which style is right for their particular piece.

Can each group decide which was the most effective style for their particular scene?

Lesson Twenty Two and Lesson Twenty Three

needed: scripts, notebooks and pencils - from now until the end of term

The rest of the year is going to be devoted to script-work. For this I have chosen four extracts from plays with enough characters amongst them to suit even the biggest of classes. All of these plays are written in a quite simple narrative style.

Part of the process of this work will be for each person to plan and record his personal 'journey.' For this reason, every one will need a notebook for the purpose and, in addition, a group 'book' - preferably an additional copy of their script interleaved with pieces of blank paper to record movement, group positioning, and so on.

Remind them first of the style of narrative theatre and for what dramatic purposes it is most often used. In brief, this is:

• a. lt tells a story. Characters are less important than the story itself, so may be simple, lacking depth and could be stereotypes. Many characters can be taken by quite a small cast, who show a change of character with a simple change of physical mannerisms and/ or a characteristic hat or prop. Asking the class to scatter into a space on the floor, throw them a number of stereotypes and see if they can come up with 'typical' poses / statues: heroine; lame old man; hard-working old woman; hero; villain; witch; magician; policeman; teacher; criminal. This should be enough to remind them. Ask one or two of these to 'come to life' and show these characters walking and talking.
• b. Characters are straight-forward and easily recognisable. To aid the story- telling idea and to make characters and their motivations even clearer narration may be used. This may be from someone standing outside the action and commenting or by the characters themselves dropping role to introduce themselves.
  
  Remind them of this with a quick exercise in which the class are divided into threes or fours.
  
  Give them a simple scenario, or they can choose their own, along the lines of:
  
  Boy is late to a date with his girlfriend. The girl is fed-up and leaves him on his own.
  
  Two young people are idling on the street when an old lady passes with a heavy bag. The youngsters offer to help. She refuses, thinking they mean her harm.
  
  As above, only the youngsters do not offer help and the old lady 'has a go' at them because they don't.
  
  Old person loses a pound coin in the gutter. A passer-by offers to help him. A policeman enters and also joins in.
  
  Any simple scene will do. They can do one of the above situations or choose their own. The characters must be straight-forward and be clearly recognisable when they enter as kind, friendly or mean - whatever - and in each case the scene is narrated by another member of the group. Narration happens whilst the characters freeze perhaps, at key moments, but the characters can speak in between. When they have done this, ask them to experiment with performing a little part of the_ scene another way: with the characters turning to the audience and narrating themselves. This can be done either: 'I came in and saw the old woman...' or 'He came in and saw the old woman... 'These exercises represent the main forms of direct address used in this style of theatre Make sure they genuinely look out at their audience, perhaps seeking to make eve contact with one or two people. The style of address could be friendly and chatty, inviting the audience to participate by giving back warmth laughter or whatever - similar to a stand-up comedian - or it could be strict, more formal like a teacher informing a class of something. The style should be appropriate to the scene.
• c. Awkward parts of a story or gaps of time may be sketched in quickly through the use of a narrator. In the same groups as before ask them to choose a well-known fairy-story, folk- tale or legend They are to tell' the story, or a part of the story, using any of the narrative method showing how narration can fill in details that are hard to 'show' on stage eg Snow White's flight through the forest might simply be narrated or narrated whilst an actor runs on the spot, terror written on her face. But the scene in which she's nearly killed by the huntsman, just prior to the flight, may be acted out more fully.

This brief reminder of the main features of the style should stand them in good stead when confronting the pieces of script In Lesson Twenty-Three.

You will probably need the whole of this lesson to read the four scripts and allocate parts to every member of the class. I have printed the scripts on separate pages for ease of photocopying.